Dark Imperium
by TheMonkfish
Summary: Inquisitor Simeon Jaeger uncovers a sinister plot to overthrow the Imperium in civil war, but there is more to the situation than meets the eye. To find victory, he must clash with those of his own brotherhood, and use forbidden power. Rated T for...well, it's 40k so expect gratuitous violence.
1. I - The Forces of Shadow

**So this is my first Warhammer 40k fic...it's inspired to some extent by the Eisenhorn novels by Dan Abnett, and the backstory elements from the old 3rd edition Witch Hunters and Daemonhunters books.**

_**Dark Imperium**_

_**I - The Forces of Shadow**_

In my years as an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos I have encountered many horrors. I have seen the Orks, savage and brutal to the last and with a relentless appetite for warfare. I have seen the monstrous Tyranids, all-devouring and limitless in number. I have even been a witness to the most ancient of our myriad foes, the enigmatic Necrons who harvest the living to enact their malignant schemes, but there is one thing that still to this day shocks me to the core. The brotherhood of the Inquisition is strong, and although some may stray off the path (I myself am counted among these radicals) they still serve the Emperor in the end, but there are those few who step too far, who delve into the warp-tainted knowledge of the Dark Gods and are inevitably turned only to madness and heresy. In my time I have only faced one such man. Alas, he was once a friend of mine, and his destruction was a pity, but nonetheless the Imperium cannot allow heresy to breed and take root...  
The hunt for this traitor was long and he took great care to cover his tracks, but the forces of the righteous are not so easily fooled. Come now, I shall tell you the story of how I foiled the traitor's vile plans, and laid him low before the apex of their conclusion!

While the Ordo Xenos primarily concerns itself with the destruction of the alien monstrosities that beset this Inperium from without, the threat of treachery cannot be ignored. So I found myself hunting a rogue psyker through the bowels of a darkened hive city, lest he open a warp rift and allow foul daemons to seep through into real space. The prey was elusive, I would give him that, but unluckily for him the servants of the Emperor are relentless. I engaged his men in a firefight among the hissing machinery of an automated manufactorum.

A renegade fired at me with his autorifle, but I took cover behind a stack of ceramite armour plates which absorbed his fire. Unhooking a grenade from my belt, I tossed it into the heretic's hiding place, where it detonated and blew him to smithereens. Another dead heretic plummeted from the catwalks above, cut down by rapid fire from my Storm Troopers, who advanced on the enemy from above. Two more secessionists waited ahead, but I dared not perform a frontal assault for they were entrenched with a heavy stubber.

"Kaelen!" I signalled with my vox-link, "deal with that gun nest!" Brother Kaelen of the Crusader Order had served with me for a good decade. Positioned on the catwalk, he gestured to a storm trooper, who threw the crusader his grenade launcher. Kaelen launched a volley of frag charges onto the gun position from above, slaying the renegades who manned it. I ran past the burnt out stubber nest and kicked down the door to the manufactorum proper, sighting the mastermind behind this scheme, the rogue psyker himself!

"Give yourself up, heretic, and your death shall be swift and painless!" I roared. The traitor replied with a hail of lasgun fire, prompting me to duck for cover behind a whirring turbine housing.

"Die, Imperial dog" growled the renegade, firing again. I cursed loudly as his fire kept me pinned in my hiding place. "Kaelen, Garent, I need support now!" I exclaimed into my vox-link. The psyker, hearing my with his warp-enhanced senses, panicked and threw a roiling burst of psychic lightning in my direction, which I evaded barely, casting aside my overcoat as it became ignited by the conflagration of warp-lightning and hellfire. Not a moment too soon, Garent sprang through a window with a cacophony of breaking glass and the yells of surprised workers from outside. "Eat this, you traitorous bastard!" he roared. The ex-guardsman blasted away with his storm bolter, striking the heretic and obliterating both his lasgun and the arm that held it. Garent Blackthorne was once a decorated sergeant of the Elesian Drop Troops, and joined my forces after being left for dead when a mission against the Tyranids went badly. The renegade fell to the ground with a scream of agony. Drawing my trusty combat blade, I approached the downed enemy and proclaimed,

"you are a vile heretic, and by Inquisitorial edict I declare you Excommunicate Traitoris. Die now knowing you have sinned against the righteous Emperor, and pray for salvation before your judgement". The psyker scoffed "death to the false Empe..." I silenced his heresies with a blade to the throat before he could complete his curse. Garent approached me. "Sir, the heretic's fellows have been dispatched in accord with the plan, but we captured one alive and have prepared him for interrogation". I grinned; Garent and his men were as efficient as always.

"We shall question him at once" I declared, "sweep the area for more evidence then return to the ship".

Several minutes later I arrived in my ship's brig for the interrogation. The man we had captured wore the garb of an undercity ganger, but on his arm was tattooed a sigil of Chaos. My interrogator, Byron, was waiting for me. A man of both learning and battle, Byron had a sharp mind and even sharper aim with his trusty laspistol. He arrayed a great variety of tools upon the table, preparing to begin the grim process. I turned to the subject. "Who was your employer?" I asked calmly. The rebel spat on the floor. "Our glorious lord shall soon come upon thee!" He wailed, "the old ways will fall, the Dark Imperium shall rise and all shall be under its dominion!" Seeing the subject was obviously insane and that we would get no useful information from him, I signalled to Byron, who executed the wretched prisoner with his laspistol. "He spoke of a Dark Imperium, what could that mean?" questioned Byron. I looked at the prisoner. Upon his neck was a curious tattoo. It bore a resemblance to the Aquilla, but had a draconic aspect, as if warped by unknown powers into something far more sinister. "Search local databases for this symbol, it may hold the key to this plot" I ordered. Byron nodded and left the room. This may be a false lead, but I could not ignore a possible threat of a secessionist, heretical movement of Chaos worshippers gaining a foothold in this sector.

I have only twice met with the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines. This occasion was the second time, and as our ship made ready to leave port, we were hailed by Astartes of the Blood Angels chapter. They boarded our vessel and I arrived to greet our visitors. The Astartes numbered six, five of whom were the of the famed tactical squads, the line infantry of the Space Marines. The leader, however, bore a stave that glowed with power, and wore an ornate suit of crimson power armour marked with scriptures and seals of righteous power. He was a Librarian, a fabled warrior of legend, an instrument of the Emperor's fury. The Librarian stepped forward to acknowledge me. "Well met, Inquisitor" he said imperiously, "we of the Blood Angels wish to ask for your assistance in recovering an artefact of great importance". My curiosity was instantly raised by his words. "We shall make all speed to recover this item, but I must ask of its nature" I replied. The Blood Angel produced a scroll, unrolling it to reveal an image of a piece of archeotech. Ancient technology was an item of great value to the Imperium, so I resolved to aid these noble warriors on their mission. "We shall assist you in this endeavour" I said, "I am Inquisitor Simeon Jaeger, and my crew shall be happy to give all help necessary to find this lost technology". The Librarian nodded approvingly. "I am Videus Documentarius" he responded through the filter of his helmet, "together; we can rescue that artefact from the reaching claw of our enemies!"

Alas, if I had known the catastrophe that waited I might not have been so eager...  
In the journey I learned something of our new allies the Astartes. Videus was a codicer in the Blood Angels Librarium, tasked with scouring the galaxy in search of chapter relics and lost knowledge. His battle brothers were named Sirius, Keldor, Marius, Titus, and Anaphron, and had served the chapter for many decades of tireless war. Sirius was a relentless warrior who prefered to fight the enemy up close with his chain-sword, while Keldor wielded a fearsome Melta-Gun scored with dozens of vehicle kill markings. Marius, Titus, and Anaphron had been raised on the same part of Baal, and all fought with the traditional bolter. Titus was loud and bombastic, eager to slay the enemies of Sanguinus and the Emperor, but his two brothers were more restrained in their zeal, and remained mostly quiet.

Our vessel was at last drawing near to the long abandoned planet where our objective lay waiting for us. Preliminary scans showed no other ships. My first realisation of the danger came as a sudden shock. All at once, I was blinded by a glaring purple light, and my hearing drowned out in a high-pitched whistle. As my vision slowly returned, I could perceive shadowy figures assailing the crew members with wickedly curved blades and strange rifles that fired a hail of glittering shards. As my senses finally became normal again, the din of battle filled my ears. Dark armoured warriors lithely sprang upon my men, laying them low with knives and cutlasses. I realised the horror of our predicament: Dark Eldar pirates had seized our vessel! As I drew my bolt pistol and prepared to retaliate, an eldar rushed at me, brandishing a segmented whip that screamed through the air. Before he could reach me, Brother Sirius cut him down with his chain-sword roaring, and then blew apart a second pirate with a volley of bolt pistol fire. "Inquisitor, we shall hold them here, go to aid the men below!" He bellowed. I nodded in agreement and hurried to the lower decks. The walls were slick with the blood of navy crewmen, and the corpses of servitors and men alike littered the hallways. I shuddered at the atrocities committed by the aliens, then sprinted into the next room. An eldar leapt from the shadows, only to be seized by a hand of psychic force. Videus stood in the other entrance, grimacing from the exertion.

"Quickly, I cannot hold him forever!" He growled. I dispatched the dark eldar with a bolt round to the head, and then joined Videus across the room. We advanced cautiously through the hallways of the ship, watching for pirates who might ambush us from the shadows. Soon we came upon a hanger where a great many sailors were chained up and being herded into slave cages by a trio of eldar, who did not notice our approach. I was filled with rage at the treatment of my people, and drew my second bolt pistol. Videus nodded and we broke from cover and opened fire on the slavers. The eldar, caught by surprise, were defeated easily. "Not so mighty when they lose the element of surprise, eh?" I scoffed. There was no reply from Videus other than a yell of pain and a crash as his armoured bulk hit the floor. I turned to see him lying wounded upon the ground with a jagged breach in his left pauldron that emitted a foul black smoke. His attacker was a lithe female eldar clad in ornate black armour and wielding a peculiar blade that appeared to be formed of bleached bones. Her scarlet hair hung unkempt and loose, and she radiated an aura of authority. She stepped toward me, and I unleashed a withering hail of bolt fire from my twin handguns, but she dodged the storm of high velocity rounds with unnatural agility and disarmed me. I launched a kick, then a flurry of punches, but she was too fast, and I was thrown to the floor and fell into darkness.

If you know much of the dark eldar, you will know the old maxim - "pray they don't take you alive". Now I could see why this was. I was hurled into a holding pen with five other prisoners, all imperial navy men, and sealed in. The cage that held us was dragged into a darkly glowing portal that the eldar conjured up through some ancient xenotech, and at once we were transported to the Dark City itself...the stories of Commoragh cannot begin to describe it. The city was enormous in size and even from the portal we had entered in I could see the vast stretches of slave pens and torture chambers where the Haemonculi practiced their heinous arts. The cage that held me and my fellows was hauled into place along side the others from the raid, and a Haemonculus approached. Grinning maniacally, he seized a sailor and pulled him from his cage, examining him. "They will do very nicely" he chuckled, "send one in five to the laboratories; a tithe for my assistance is in order". From our cage a gun battery operator was grabbed by two warriors and dragged screaming to his gruesome fate. "Archon Kalefina, the rest are yours, do with them what you will" said the torturer. The female eldar who had attacked Videus and I nodded and gestured for her warriors to transport our cages to the base of her Kabal.

After a short flight on an anti-gravity skiff, the cages were unloaded at the Kabal slave pens. Kalefina stood before us. "Which of you calls himself the leader" she questioned. I stood up as best as I could in the cramped slave cage. "I do" I replied, trying to muster what little authority I could. The Archon signalled to two pirates, who pulled me from my cage and let me stand.

"I am not without courtesy" said the eldar with a wicked smile, "before you are sent to the arenas, perhaps you would care for a drink and something to eat?" I was surprised by this. Normally, dark eldar were interested only in destruction and murder, not showing manners to their unwilling 'guests'. "I shall take you up on this offer, but first I must see to the safety of my allies" I tried to appeal to the alien warrior's honour. She didn't change her expression, keeping the predatory grin. "You may attend to your men" she said, "then a warrior shall escort you and three of your comrades to the dining chamber". I went over to the cage that held Garent and Byron. Garent's armour was rent and bloodied, while Byron was heavily bruised and scarred from a razor flail impact to the torso. Seeing that my allies were alive, I signalled the warriors to release them. The three of us recovered Kaelen. The crusader was bleeding heavily from his left arm, but he had bandaged it with a cloth torn from his robes. Eldar warriors stepped up to escort us to our destination, with splinter rifles raised and ready to fire. As we were marched along shadowy corridors, I examined our captors. The two eldar warriors wore dark armour decorated with silver runes and vicious spikes. Upon their belts were curved knives and they carried compact rifles with razor sharp blades beneath the jagged casing of the barrel. At last, we arrived at our destination, a vast chamber with many ornate tables. A great variety of alien foods were arrayed upon them, with spiked goblets containing drink scattered among it. The Archon lounged on a chair at the table's head, and four other seats lay empty across the table from her. My fellows and I seemed out of place in this setting, bloodied and wounded as were. The warriors directed us to our seats and Kalefina motioned for us to eat. Before beginning, I looked our host.

"I'm curious" I said cautiously, "what do you seek to accomplish from this?" The dark eldar laughed. "Is it not good manners to greet an enemy commander with ceremony before his end approaches?" She replied. I grinned back at her. "Perhaps you have underestimated me" I responded, "my end is not here, and not by your hand or the hands of any of your fellows". She seemed impressed by my reply. The two warriors, however, seemed to take it as a threat and moved to ready their weapons. "Maybe you aren't like the others of your species..." she said thoughtfully, "it is rare to find a human who maintains his will in the clutches of Commoragh. Or was this part of your plan all along, Inquisitor?" I laughed. "You think I have a plan?" I jested, "I'm just making this up as I go along!" The two warriors seemed disconcerted by my confidence, raising their splinter rifles into the firing position. Kalefina signalled them to lower their weapons, but then I acted. Garent and I leapt upon the warriors, disarming them and engaging them in a brawl. Byron seized the fallen splinter rifle of a warrior and bayoneted him with it, before Garent kicked the unfortunate eldar through a nearby window, where he fell screaming to his untimely demise. I punched the other in his unarmoured gut, stunning him momentarily, then grabbed the knife from his belt and rammed it through the faceplate of his helmet, killing him instantly. The archon had not moved an inch while this happened. She clapped slowly as she stood up, which puzzled me.

"Thank you for disposing of those incompetent oafs the Black Heart saddled me with, they were a major inconvenience" she laughed, "and bravo for dealing with them so easily". I knew that factionalism within the dark eldar was strong, and civil war was commonplace with Kabals and Wych Cults constantly attempting to dethrone each other, but her inaction still surprised me. "I suppose you now wish to remove me as well" she said, sounding bored, "I'm afraid this simply won't do". I nodded to Byron, who opened fire with the splinter rifle, then Kaelen, Garent and I charged forth with our captured weapons. Kalefina easily evaded the storm of shards from Byron's attack, and then blocked my knife attack with one bladed vambrace.

"Don't you know it's rude to hit a lady?" she chuckled, before disarming me and hurling me across the room. Garent met a similar fate and was knocked unconscious when he impacted with a support strut. Kaelen and Byron sprang forward with bayonets; however they too were evaded and cast aside with ease.

"That's twice in a day I've bested you now" she whispered to me, "try a little harder next time, if you survive the arena that is". I vaguely remember a squad of warriors entering the room and chaining my squad and I, but as they dragged us off I blacked out and saw no more.

I awoke in the holding pens of the arena. My combat blade and pistols had been returned to me, and as I regained consciousness I saw Byron, Kaelen, and Garent had also recovered their armaments. Kaelen grinned and twirled his antique power sword, the activated his storm shield. Both Garent and Byron checked their firearms, and we all turned to face our fate. The pen opened and eldar with shock pikes herded us into the gladiatorial arena. Across the field of battle was a pair of wyches, armed with wicked knives and spears.

"They want a show?" I chuckled, "we'll give them a show, and show them we won't go quietly!" My men roared in agreement, and we screamed the imperial battle cry "AVE IMPERATOR!" before charging. Garent blazed away with his storm bolter, catching a wych off guard and causing her to dive to the side, where Byron dispatched her with an accurate headshot. The other wych rushed us, but Kaelen intercepted with a brutal shield bash and bisected the gladiator with a swing of his power sword. "Anyone else want some?" roared Garent, brandishing his smoking storm bolter. As if on cue, three gates opened and wyches poured into the stadium. "Fuck" swore the guardsman, "I shouldn't have given them ideas". I took aim with my twin bolt pistols and fired. The deadly mass-reactive rounds jumped from the two barrels and tore into the sprinting wyches with lethal effect. Half a dozen were slaughtered where they stood by the fusillade of fire, but the rest evaded my attack and closed in, only to be met by Kaelen's shield, and Byron's trusty sabre. The interrogator parried a knife blow and gutted his attacker, then killed another with a laspistol burst. The wyches attacking Kaelen were deflected by his storm shield, and then mowed down by Garent. The crowd was shocked, never before had the wyches been slaughtered to the last so effectively, and the captives rarely worked as a team as we had done. "Release the Chymera!" yelled a Haemonculus. Into the arena bounded a vile beast with razor fangs that dripped with saliva. "Well now we're fucked" exclaimed Garent.

**So, I hope that was decent enough...review it if you would please, it's very helpful to get feedback on such things as this.**


	2. II - Angel Bullet

**Thanks to BIBOTOT and Cain O'Phelan for the feedback, I've tried to fix up the formatting the best I could.**

_**II - Angel Bullet**_

The warp-beast the Haemonculus had unleashed roared and rushed at us. Garent fired on it, but was forced to dive aside to avoid its snapping maw. As the beast rounded for another attack, Byron strafed it with laspistol fire, which did little but anger it. I fired my bolt pistols frantically, which wounded the Chymera, but it continued its offensive and barged into Kaelen. The crusader's shield absorbed some of the force, but he was thrown backwards and stunned. The creature moved in for the kill, and I realised that if I did not act now Kaelen would be consumed. I seized the spear of one of the fallen wyches and sprang on the beast's back, impaling it through the base of its thick neck. It roared in anger and threw me off, but now it was wounded! Garent emptied the rest of his storm bolter magazine into the Chymera and it collapsed with a dozen smoking holes it its armoured hide. The eldar in the crowd roared in outrage. How could lowly humans slay a war-beast? Byron gave a mocking bow to the spectators, and then dark eldar emerged with shock-pikes to force us back into the holding pens and disarm us.

Archon Kalefina waited for us outside the cages. "Quite the show you put on there Inquisitor" she laughed, "although I'm not sure the Haemonculi will take so kindly to your slaughter of their pet". I grinned at the eldar.

"Well, I can't please everyone" I joked, "the Haemonculi are hardly friends of mine anyway". As my men and I were returned to transport cages, Kalefina walked off, and with a wicked parting smile and a sweep of her cloak she was gone.

We were returned to the Kabal's slave pens in short order. Two eldar warriors armed with halberds and splinter pistols stood guard outside our cage. In their supreme arrogance, the fools had stood close to the bars of the cage. Garent and I snuck up to the bars without the guards noticing, then seized them from behind, throttling them. The arrogant eldar tried to cry out for assistance, but we kept our choke holds on and they were soon silenced. Taking the key from a dead eldar, I released us from our cage. We took up the weapons of the fallen eldar, then we crept slowly into the next holding chamber. A third warrior stood guard, with his back to us. I signalled to Byron, who approached silently and ran the eldar through with his halberd.

The cages in this room contained the surviving Blood Angels. Kaelen unsealed the cage doors, and Videus and Sirius emerged.

"What of the others?" I asked. Sirius shook his head grimly. Videus was fitted with a psy-suppressor that prevented him from using his powers. Using the key from the dead guard, I removed it. "Thank you, Inquisitor" said the Astartes, "we must escape from this place at once!"

We successfully evaded an eldar patrol as we left the holding pens, then opened two more cages; one containing sailors of the imperial navy, and one storm troopers. A storm trooper sergeant stepped forward. "Sir, the eldar have a portal to real space on the floor above us, I overheard the guards talking about it". I relayed the news to my men. "First we need to recover our weapons" I directed, "then we can finally escape this place".

Alas, if it was only that simple. Upon reaching the armoury, we were confronted by Kalefina and a squad of her corsairs.

"Well, if it isn't my favourite human" she said, "back for another round already?" I scowled. My men were not well armed or in any state to take the eldar head on, never mind the Archon. "You thought you could sneak out undetected?" she questioned, "while your effort is commendable, you clearly underestimated me". I scanned the hallway. There was no way we could conceivably escape unharmed, and very little cover. A dark eldar with a psy-suppression generator prevented Videus from using his powers. Kalefina obviously noticed my observation. "Oh, you're in trouble now aren't you?" She chuckled, "Perhaps you'd be interested in a bargain? Lend me a hand dealing with Archon Seryth of the Shattered Claw and I'll let you walk out of here alive". I pondered her offer.

"Normally, I'd sneer at an alien asking for help, but I'm no idiot and I certainly don't have a death wish" I replied, "what exactly do you need?"

I really can't believe how I was coerced into an uneasy alliance with dark eldar, but nonetheless I felt it was necessary to preserve the lives of my men. With our weapons returned to us, we travelled to the target of our raid: the base of Seryth's Kabal. We rode in a Raider with Kalefina and four of her warriors. The enemy forces had not yet detected us, and we landed atop the spire with no resistance. My trusted warriors, including the two Astartes, disembarked and followed the first step of Kalefina's plan: disable the hostile night shields to allow our main force entry. While the Astartes were loathe to work with aliens, they would sooner do that than bend their knees to enslavement. The upper floors of the Kabal fortress were comprised of slave pens. Wretched slaves of many species cowered in the cages. Upon seeing we were not dark eldar, one approached the bars.

"Imperials" he croaked, "heed my warning, the Dark Imperium shall rise!" His words shocked me. The Dark Imperium was not a name I had expected to hear in this wretched place.

"Tell me!" I growled, seizing him by the shoulders, "what is the Dark Imperium?" The prisoner cackled. "He is mighty, even in here I serve his will" be rasped, "soon we shall rise and all shall be consumed in fire!" I slew the heretic with my combat blade before he could utter another blasphemy. Byron looked as shocked as I did. "This Dark Imperium may be a threat" he said, "upon our return to real space, we should endeavour to root them out". I nodded, then signalled for us to continue the mission.

On the next floor down were the night shield projectors; a squad of Seryth's warriors guarded them. All pretence of stealth was lost as I tripped an unseen alarm upon entering the room. The dark eldar yelled and fired on my party with splinter rifles, causing us to dive for cover among the arcane machinery of the shield projectors. My men pinned the enemy down with a hail of fire, allowing us to dispatch them with frag grenades, but now the whole fortress was alerted to our presence. I quickly destroyed the shields with a well placed krak grenade, then we made good our escape. As I fled the room, a kaballite sprang out of a hidden door with a curved sword. Before he could strike me, Kalefina appeared from nowhere and decapitated him mid-swing.

"Well now, I can't have anyone besting you but me, can I?" she joked. I raised an eyebrow, then joined my men in a retreat.

With the shields disabled, Kalefina's warriors easily overwhelmed the enemy and killed them to the last. I met with the Archon atop the burning fortress.

"I shall keep my word, you and your men are free to go" she said. I was still puzzled by this offer. "You're not like the other dark eldar, are you?" I asked. The Archon gave me a knowing grin and said "that would be telling too much, I think". I rolled my eyes at her cryptic messages.

Returning to real space was indeed a relief. As we stepped through the webway gate and into the true galaxy once again, I turned to face Kalefina. "I don't suppose it's worth asking again why you would release us?" I questioned. The Archon's expression didn't change.

"You're an interesting one" she said thoughtfully, "I like that. Maybe we'll meet again some time, but until then it's farewell". The eldar winked at me as she returned through the webway gate, to which Garent wolf-whistled. "Garent, have I ever told you how badly timed your jokes are?" I groaned. The only response I heard from Garent was laughter.

"I'd say you're in with a chance sir, with all due respect of course" added Byron. "Not you as well!" I complained, "you're supposed to be professionals, not damn schoolboys!" To be fair, we had just escaped hell, and probably needed some humour. "Now, does anyone actually know where we are?" asked Kaelen. Well, this was an inconvenience. This was plainly Kalefina's idea of a joke, placing us on some backwater world where we wouldn't be found for weeks.

Luckily fate was on our side, and a mere hour after our escape from Commoragh, an Imperial shuttle landed near our position. Upon approaching it we saw it bore the seals of the Inquisition. "Ah, a fellow of our brotherhood" I remarked, drawing near to the vessel. The ceramite hull folded open and out stepped an imposing figure. He wore a great crimson cloak and beneath that a suit of dull black carapace armour. At his hip was a sheathed sword with a scabbard covered in sealing scriptures and sigils of warding. I recognised the man, he was Inquisitor Claudius Drakken of the Ordo Malleus, an old friend of mine.

"Jaeger?" He said surprisedly, "what in Terra's name are you doing here?" I quickly recounted the tale of our capture and escape from the eldar, but left out the part about co-operating with the Archon. "To escape from the dark city is no mean feat" he said, sounding impressed, "come, we shall return you to your home sector at once, where you may resume your duties!"

Videus and Sirius left us then, to return to Baal no doubt. "Thank you for freeing us from that hell hole Inquisitor" spoke the Librarian, "I shall overlook the methods you have used, but others may not. Best to keep that part hidden from all, I think". Brother Sirius nodded approvingly, then the two Astartes left. When we arrived at my base of operations on planet Dagon, I immediately began my new task - uncover the Dark Imperium. My entire staff was now employed in this endeavour, as we searched records both local and far afield to track down these heretics. At last, we had a lead; Inquisitor Tiberius Arkei had records indicating that a cult uprising on Ajax Beta had been attributed to a group calling themselves the Dark Imperium. The cult had been largely eliminated, but a few escaped and were believed to be hiding in the Obitus Verge asteroid belt. Armed with this knowledge and a tonne of firepower. I set out to find and interrogate these surviving heretics.

Asteroid fields are horrific to navigate, any helmsman will tell you so. In our new corvette, the Unrelenting Wrath, we scoured the belt for signs of the enemy. A particularly large asteroid gave off strange readings. "Erwin, what do we have?" I asked our tech expert. "Preliminary scans indicate a network of tunnels within the asteroid, but there's no telling what you'll find down there" replied the aged magus. I grimaced. Tunnel fighting was always bloody and difficult. "Byron, get the team in the shuttle bay, and bring the storm troopers as well" I instructed over vox-link. Sweeps, our resident expert on tunnel warfare, would also accompany us. She had grown up on the world of Athonos, where brutal close range firefights were the norm, and the sewers were a constant battleground. A decade in the Athonian Tunnel Rats as a Combat Engineer had only made her tougher and more lethal. Dozer, Silver, and Blitz, also veterans of Athonian guard regiments, joined us as well. "Break out the shotguns and flamers Sweeps" I ordered, "this one will be up close and personal". The engineer grinned maniacally and pulled out her customised shotgun. "You don't know how happy I am to hear that...sir" she said with great enthusiasm.

We landed on the surface four dozen strong. The storm troopers carried weapons suited for close range combat, shotguns and flamers aplenty. Erwin had calculated the optimal breach point, and Silver blasted through the asteroid's surface with a breaching charge. Our sealed armour kept us safe from the vacuum of space. Upon entering the tunnels we saw the extent of the corruption. The walls were slick with the blood of sacrifices, and sigils of the Dark Gods adorned every surface. "We must purge this unholy place" I growled, "burn the heretic!" My soldiers roared in approval, then the three fireteams split to search the three tunnels leading away from our entry point. After a while we came upon an altar of Chaos, upon which a guardsman had been sacrificed to Khorne. "May the Emperor guide your soul to salvation brother" I said quietly.

Erwin warned us over vox-link "there are heat sources in the next room, possible hostiles". I readied the shotgun Sweeps had provided. "We shall cleanse this place, forward men!" I commanded. Blitz kicked in the door to the next chamber and opened up with both barrels of his custom Athonian shotgun, lacerating a pair of cultists who were smoking by the doorway. The survivors screamed in terror as the black armoured storm troopers surged into the room and mowed them down.

"To the next room, hurry!" I yelled. Sweeps clubbed a cultist about the head and gutted him with a razor edged machete. "You heard the boss!" She roared, "let's get to it!" We cleared several rooms of heretics with disciplined fire, before coming upon a large central chamber.

A table was arrayed in the style of a war room, and a huge flag hung from the ceiling. The flag of the Dark Imperium! The arch-heretic lounged on his command chair. "Ha, I knew the Imperium would find me eventually" he scoffed, "but know this dog of the emperor, my master shall tear you down and bring your empire to ruin!" Dozer knocked him unconscious with a riot maul, ending his monologuing. "Take him to the interrogation chamber" I said, "we shall search this place for any leads". The other fireteams had by now reached the central chamber as well. Garent and Byron reported that the heretics had been purged, and that they had found a store of shipping manifests and other documents that needed to be examined. The command room yielded some information, and we found a star map detailing possible strongholds for the cult, and a letter from a 'Mr. Bern', who seemed to be some sort of arms dealer. Bern was the most obvious link, so we would investigate him first.

Upon returning to our ship, I tasked Erwin with extrapolating Bern's location from the data we had recovered. He was the next link in this conspiracy, I was sure of it, and if we found him we could trace this plot to its source. In the meantime, Byron and I would interrogate the heretic commander. I entered the interrogation chamber to find Byron had already prepared the prisoner and layer out the necessary tools. I picked up a neural scalpel and showed it to our victim. "If you want a painless death, you'll tell us what we need to know" I threatened, "who is the leader of the Dark Imperium?" The cultist was unfazed.

"Fool!" He cackled, "he is beyond your understanding, and he shall end you and your corpse emperor!" I sighed. "Well we'll try something simple" I replied, "who is Bern?" The heretic responded "he is a rogue trader, but you shall never find him, my master has already hidden him away!" He broke down into an uncontrolled fit of insane laughter. I signalled to Byron, who put the heretic out of his misery with a laspistol shot. "At least we now know the identity of Bern" said Byron.

Erwin had found Bern's likely location, and we made all speed to locate the arms dealer before our enemy could conceal him from us. While we waited the few days for our arrival at Bern's location, we passed the time training and with our various non-militant activities. The Athonians and storm troopers did battle in games of poker and dice, and I would occasionally join them. Sweeps spent her time either sparring with the other team members (and she inevitably beat most of them) or tinkering with her vast array of firearms. Byron, as well as being a skilled interrogator, was a talented musician and played all manner of stringed instruments, while Garent preferred to occupy himself with target practice and physical exercise. As a crusader, Kaelen would often meditate, although the din caused by the storm troopers made this difficult sometimes. As for myself, I partook in the aforementioned gambling on occasion (something more Puritan inquisitors would frown on no doubt) and read the works of ancient Terran authors such as Sandoval Mitchellus. After four long days passed like this, we arrived in orbit around the world we suspected Bern resided upon.


	3. III - Badlands Rumble

**_III - Badlands Rumble_**

Our search for answers lead us to a lawless world on the frontiers of Imperial space. Here, the Emperor's light was nowhere to be found, and his servants had no authority. We landed in a discrete shuttle painted dull black, with no identifying marks. Accompanying me were Sweeps and Byron. To disguise our Imperial allegiance, we wore long overcoats that allowed easy concealment of weapons, and also hid our armour from view. Sweeps wore her trademark goggles, and Byron had a wide-brimmed hat he claimed was a replica of an ancient Terran 'cowboy hat'. A short distance from our landing site lay a hamlet, where it was believed Bern was located. Our initial surveillance showed no obvious hostiles, and no sign of the Dark Imperium.

"Alright, it looks clear from here, we should move in and search for Bern" I murmured. My two companions nodded in acknowledgement and we entered the hamlet. A few locals wandered around but they payed little attention to my party. We approached what appeared to be a saloon. I pushed open the wooden double doors and we entered.

Inside the saloon, a handful of natives sat about drinking various alcoholic beverages. A couple also smoked. I approached the bartender.  
"Do you know a trader named Bern?" I asked him. The man's eyes widened. "The rogue trader?" He said worriedly, "he's nothing but trouble, stay away from him". At that moment the doors of the saloon flew open with a loud crash. Half a dozen hooded figures stood in the doorway, and they carried lasguns. My confusion turned to worry when I saw they bore marks of Chaos upon their robes.

"You, by the bar!" Growled the front intruder, "surrender at once!" The locals slowly inched their hands towards holstered pistols. I had to cause a distraction somehow. Noticing a bottle of some strong alcohol upon the bar, I seized it and hurled it at the intruder. He instinctively fired on the projectile, but the red hot las-burst ignited the alcohol and doused him in burning ethanol. All hell broke loose. A local drew a knife and sprang at me, but I elbowed him in the face and smashed a bottle over his head, rendering him unconscious. Byron tripped one of the hooded cultists into an armed native, then smashed a flimsy wooden chair across the downed heretic's back, leaving him down for the count. The locals and the cultists opened fire on each other and the air was filled with las-fire, prompting my allies and I to vault over the bar and take cover, with Sweeps taking out the bartender with a punch to the throat on the way over.

"I thought you said this would be easy!" shouted Byron over the din of the bar's patrons and the Chaos troopers brawling. "Haven't you noticed by now?" remarked Sweeps, "it's never easy, there's always some bloody cult or xeno raiders waiting to jump us as soon as we let our damn guard down!" While her words were amusingly truthful, there were more pressing matters at hand, like how we were going to escape this tavern brawl. A quick glance over the bar showed that three cultists still fought on, and five bar patrons still stood.

"Come on boss, we can take 'em!" Said Sweeps with a wicked grin. I sighed. "Right, but try not to blow up anything we might need to check later" I replied. The crazy Athonian sprang over the bar with a roared battle cry and promptly disabled a cultist with a kick to his crotch, before head-butting one of the local brawlers into unconsciousness.

The remaining four locals did what anyone would when faced with a screaming madwoman rushing at them. They fled for their lives. The last two cultists tried to fire on Sweeps, but Byron planted his armoured boot square in one's chest, forcing him through a table which was smashed to splinters by the cultist's passing, and I kicked the other's legs out from beneath him before stamping on his torso to ensure he didn't get back up.

"These guys aren't Dark Imperium" I observed, "look, no draconic markings, just the eight pointed star". Byron pulled back the robes of one cultist. Beneath the dark garments was a simple flak vest emblazoned with a sigil of Chaos.

"Yes, there's no obvious Dark Imperium iconography" replied Byron, "they could be proxies, or mercenaries though, I'll send images to Erwin for examination". If we could identify these cultists it would make our job of unravelling the mysteries of this planet much easier. We stepped out of the saloon we had just wrecked to see a crowd of locals gathered before us. One, obviously the ringleader, stepped forward to speak.

"Who do you people work for?" He asked, "and why did you fight the Brotherhood?" I decided it would be better to keep our Imperial allegiance secret for now. "We're mercenaries" I responded, "those men started a fight so we took them down". The ringleader nodded in approval.

"The Brotherhood have been nothing but trouble ever since that Fawkes guy brought them here" he grumbled, "they're just a bunch of thugs!" This Fawkes character seemed to be at the centre of this affair. We would need to question him to identify how far the cult had reached.

"Where is the trader Bern?" I asked. The ringleader had the same reaction as the bartender. "Bern is in the compound off to the east" he said hurriedly, "but the Brotherhood have him under heavy guard, you won't get to him!" I cursed under my breath. If the Brotherhood was involved with Bern they could well be allied with the Dark Imperium.

We took our leave from the town and I called for reinforcements. We would need more than three men to deal with Bern's guards. Four additional shuttles landed at our drop zone, and out poured storm troopers led by Garent and Kaelen. The Tunnel Rat veterans also emerged, shotguns at the ready.  
"Bern is holed up in a compound to the east of here" I addressed my troops, "it's very likely there will be a Chaos presence there, possibly allies of the Dark Imperium". Erwin's scans had shown a network of caves that ran directly under the enemy base. We would use them to gain access, hopefully without detection.  
However, our approach was not so simple. As we approached the site we would enter the tunnels through, one of the storm troopers was felled by sniper fire. My men and I sprinted for cover.

"Enemy sniper, on the ridge!" yelled Garent. I gestured to a trooper with his own sniper weapon. The storm trooper took up his position and awaited a signal.  
"Kaelen, bait him" I ordered. The crusader broke from cover, and his storm shield protected him from the sniper's attack. My own sniper returned fire, slaying the Brotherhood marksman. As if on cue, Brotherhood men riding swift steeds galloped into view and fired on us with pistols from horseback. We returned fire, downing a few but the rest reached us and set upon us with scimitars. Sweeps unseated one of the hostiles and catapulted him into a dune, where he was riddled with las-fire, while Garent took out a cluster of riders with a frag grenade. Before long, our attackers had been destroyed and we reached the entry point.

Dozer and Silver hauled a boulder aside, revealing the entrance to the subterranean network we would use as our point of entry. The storm troopers were equipped with low light vision goggles to see in the dim caverns, and we advanced for several minutes with no issues. We came upon a gargantuan pair of steel doors. They were emblazoned with the symbol of the Dark Imperium!

"Sir, that room is shielded" came Erwin's voice over vox-link, "there could be anything in there and I wouldn't pick it up". Without warning, the doors began to hiss and slide open. My men and I concealed ourselves as best as we could in the shadows as a trio of heretics emerged.

"Lord, the men we sent to the town have been dispatched by unknown assailants" hissed one of the traitors "and our riders are not reporting in". The foremost one, dressed in black carapace armour, replied;

"no matter, the plan still moves forward as anticipated". I decided now was the time to strike at these foes.

"Not today, heretic!" I roared as I sprang from the shadows and blasted the nearest enemy with my bolt pistols. The leader turned and fled, pushing his second minion into my path. I bowled over the cultist and executed him with my pistol, and chased after the leader, followed by my storm troopers. The fleeing traitor hurled a frag grenade at my men, driving us into cover momentarily and allowing him to dive into a nearby skiff and escape.

"Shit" swore Garent, "he's gonna go get backup now!" I scowled, but we still had to find Bern and Fawkes. We examined the shielded room. All around were vehicles and mining equipment, and many racks of weapons from across the galaxy. They were building an arsenal! Before I could investigate further, a door across the chamber clanked open and a horde of cultists stormed in, opening fire with lasguns.

"Take cover!" yelled Dozer, and my men and I did as such, returning fire from our hiding places and slaying a few of our attackers. A cultist with a flamer tried to rush us, but Garent's storm bolter cut him down before he could reach us. Heretics were mowed down by high-energy bursts as the storm troopers returned fire on their attackers. Before long, our attackers had been eliminated, but at the cost of half a dozen of my storm troopers.

"We need to find the heart of this complex" said Blitz, "the rogue trader is our main concern here". I nodded, then directed our forces to advance. We stormed down a steel corridor and kicked down a door, blasting a huddle of Dark Imperium soldiers who resided within, then saw that this was far bigger than we had previously though. The chamber we had entered was enormous - you could have easily fit a small Titan in it. In its centre was a vast pit, with a gargantuan mining elevator attached to steel rails, which lead down into the depths. The elevator was big enough to hold a sizeable army, so my men and I fitted on with ease. Kaelen pulled a control lever, beginning our descent into the heart of this dark place.

"There's no telling what they're hiding down here" I advised my men, "so stay sharp!" The storm troopers checked their grenades, and reloaded their hellguns, preparing for the worst. At last, the elevator ground to a halt. We were standing in another massive chamber, but now the true horror of the enemy plan was revealed.

Across the wall opposite our entry point was placed a huge cross-like superstructure. Impaled onto it was a Lord of Change, one of the vile daemons of Tzeench! It was held in such a manner that it appeared to be crucified, and a great lance was protruding from its chest. This monstrosity could not be permitted to survive any longer in this world, but it was doubtful that we could take on such a deadly foe without the support of the Ordo Malleus, or the Grey Knights, and I had done little to endear myself to either order. At that point I noticed the cult leader who had fled earlier. He had shed his armour and wore dark robes.  
"Greetings Inquisitor" he spoke with an arrogant drawl, "it seems you have reached the point of no return". I scowled. This heretic was in collaboration with a greater daemon, so he would evidently be powerful, but we might be able to slay him before he could retaliate if we caught him off guard.  
"You cannot prevent the inevitable" he sneered, "the Dark Imperium shall rise, and all will burn". He snapped his fingers and cultists poured into the room, but they also dragged struggling locals with them.

"Today our lord shall receive a great blessing!" Chanted the cult leader, "begin the sacrifice!" The cultists set upon the screaming civilians with knives and axes, butchering them and watering the ground with their blood in honour of their dark gods. I roared in blind fury.  
"Kill these warp-spawned bastards!" I growled, and the storm troopers sprang into action. Before we could fire on the cultists, the cult leader extended a hand as if to catch us, and I found myself paralysed and unable to continue my attack. My forces were similarly beset by the heretic's unholy power.  
"The great daemon lord has granted me a portion of his power" taunted the cult leader, "I am stronger than a thousand pitiful Inquisitors!" I was forced to watch, helpless, as the citizens of this world were slaughtered before my eyes. The cultists hacked them apart with gusto until none remained alive, then the cult leader released my forces, but not by letting us down. He exercised a psychic blast and hurled us across the chamber, killing a few of my storm troopers from blunt trauma, and stunning the survivors.

"My power is unlimited!" He cackled maniacally, "you cannot stand against Chaos!" Before he could continue his rant, I fired my bolt pistol at him, detonating his head and instantly killing him.

"So, I cannot stand against Chaos, eh?" I replied, "well, I think I just did!"

"Chaos has many faces" chuckled a voice behind me. I turned around, but received a fist to the face and fell unconscious.

I awoke in some sort of containment pod, and saw through the murky glass of its front side that dozens of other pods lined the room I was held in. Each pod was connected to many cables and tubes, and a combination of archeotech and daemonic sorcery seemed to power them. A man in the armour of the Dark Imperium approached my pod. He carried an archaic firearm with an ornate wooden casing, but it seemed to be far more than that. Daemonic energies coursed about its working parts, and its barrel gave off a malevolent glow.

"Inquisitor Jaeger, soon you will know the true nature of our scheme" he said softly, "too bad you won't live to tell anyone about it". I recognised his voice - he was my attacker from previously!

"Ah, where are my manners?" He said, "I am Sebastian Fawkes, the commander of this little base". So this was the arch-heretic of this place, the man who had bought the Brotherhood to this world, and presumably the Dark Imperium, as the evidence now overwhelmingly suggested the Brotherhood was merely a front for the Dark Imperium.

"Let this ceremony begin" be announced, "activate the blood pods!" The containment vessels hummed with dark energies and the archeotech that controlled them hissed and clanked to life. Across the hall, I saw a captive guardsman in his pod. He screamed as the dark power of the pod drained him of his lifeblood and pumped it through the pipes attached to it. Before long, the imperial soldier was reduced to a desiccated husk, with all his blood taken by the heathen machinery of the cult.  
"More blood for the rebirth of our master" roared Fawkes, "let it flow to him, and speed his resurrection!" I was sickened by what I saw. The guardsman's blood was piped to The Lord of Change, and the daemon drew the red fluids in, glowing with unholy energies. Realising my men and I were next, I struggled against my bonds, managing to break loose from the shackles, but I was still trapped in the blood pod. I drew my bolt pistol in the cramped confines, and shot through the glass of the pod's front.

"What?" Yelled Fawkes, "you dare to interrupt this sacrifice?" He raised his unholy weapon, but I followed up my escape with a shot to his torso that blew him backwards and into an archeotech generator, where he was electrocuted and fell still. The cultist operating the blood pods screamed and ran, but I blasted him before he could make good his escape. I blew open the pods of my storm troopers and retinue. Only a handful of storm troopers remained.  
"We must escape at once" said Kaelen, "lest we be sacrificed for their blasphemous plot!" We stormed out of the sacrificial chamber, and headed for the mining elevator. As we passed through a holding cell block, I noticed an emaciated man in the garb of a rogue trader.

"Are you Bern?" I asked him. He nodded weakly. "Bring him with us" I ordered. Silver helped the weakened man to his feet, and we soon returned to the mining elevator.

"Sir, how will we deal with the daemon?" asked Kaelen. I grinned.

"Send an anonymous tip off to the Ordo Malleus that a daemon cult is located here" I replied. Kaelen nodded, and we proceeded to leave on the cargo elevator.

Within the ruined pod chamber, a figure stirred from unconsciousness. He hissed in pain and struggled to his feet.


End file.
